I can't tell you all how lucky we are to have such a wonderful child, who is full of personality. People always say, "She sure is a handful." or "You must have your hands full with that one." I know what people really mean when they say that is that she's a brat and a diva. I don't care, ha ha ha. She is perfect the way she is and I love it that she's strong-willed and hard-headed ;0)
Her first birthday is in less than a month and I'm having mixed feelings about it. I'm so excited, but sad that my baby is growing up. It does happen so fast. I feel like I just brought her home from the hospital, blinked, and here we are planning her first birthday party.
Lately, I haven't been good at documenting her milestones, but in the last three months she has really started to emerge into a little lady.
She babbles constantly, loves to scream when she's happy (and mad) and can say a few distinct words:
cat - "at" or "at-ah"
Daddy - "dad-eeeeeeeeeeee"
Ma Ma - "mum-mum-ma"
Dixie (my parents' dog) - "Dix-eeeeeee"
hi - "hi"
If you ask her where the cat is, she looks around the room until she finds one. Also, if she's near a cat, she'll say "cat." If you ask her to find daddy in a picture, she'll point to Jimmy. I think she's finally connecting Jimmy to the word daddy. Sometimes we hear her say "daddy" when Jimmy picks her up or walks into the room. She can say "mama," but sadly, I don't think she associates that work with me yet :( As I mentioned before, she learned Dixie's name fairly quickly and was able to associate the word with the dog within a week (I was impressed!).
She is also getting really skilled at waving and even says "hi" while she does so. She constantly waves to Jimmy and I while she's playing. She's now starting to wave and say hi to random strangers as we walk, especially kids.
Amelia is a very talented, fast crawler. I swear, I turn around for a second and she's halfway across the room. Most of the time, when she crawls, she has a huge smile on her face and says, "aahhhh, aaahhhh, aaahhhhh." She's very noisy when she's on the move!
Amelia has also mastered the art of pulling up. She can pull up onto anything she puts her mind to. Once she's pulled up, she likes to cruise around. I've caught her standing on her own unassisted a few times, but I think we are at least a few months from walking. Of course, I don't mind at all ;0)
She has a few favorite toys. Stacking cups, finger puppets, balls, and her small shape blocks seem to be her go to toys. It's funny, she has several electronic toys that light up, sing, and make noises, but she almost always prefers the simple toys. She likes to dump her toys in and out of containers and throw things. Amelia is also a climber and loves to rough house. She's getting really good at playing independently.
Just in the last few weeks, every night when Jimmy comes home, they sit together and watch an episode of Barney. She gets so excited when it comes on that she squeals in delight. However, after about 10 minutes or so, so loses interest, but that's okay with me.
Amelia also has several favorite books. It's so amazing to me that she knows the difference. Her and Jimmy read
A Night, Night Prayer at least once a night (though it's more like 5 times) before bed and she LOVES it. Her other favorites are anything
Fancy Nancy,
Eight Little Monkeys and
Noisy Farm. Oh yeah, if it's a touch-and-feel book, she's pretty much going to love it. When we read together, I always catch her trying to touch the pages! She thinks every book is a touch-and-feel book, ha ha ha.
That's all I can remember right now... I wish I had been better at keeping track.
